Daylight Savings Time – who’s bright idea was this?

03 Nov Daylight Savings Time – who’s bright idea was this?

Many sources credit Ben Franklin for being the first person to propose Daylight Savings Time (DST) – the idea of aligning daylight hours to the workday in 1784. Canada first used it in 1908, and Germany popularized it in 1916. The U.S. adopted it as “Fast Time” in 1918.

DST ends this Sunday, November 5th as we go back to standard time. Changing the clocks along with winter’s arrival brings many of us much more than that extra hour of sleep. For some, seeing it get dark at 4:00 pm is depressing. If you are not a fan of cooler weather that also can add to the feeling of depression otherwise known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). After a year and a half of the pandemic, SAD is affecting people much more than usual. I recently read in The Atlantic about a couple in Connecticut that are so against Standard Time that they don’t set their clocks behind from November – March. They are careful to not miss meetings or times with friends by scheduling in the correct time.

For those of us that would find that a bit difficult to do,  there are some things that you can do to ward off SAD and maybe even thrive. You could make sure that you get the most of the daylight as possible and since it will be lighter earlier in the morning getting a walk in would help in soaking in the sun as well as getting cardio exercise that produces hormones that can help with anxiety and depressive symptoms. Another thing that has helped so many are these “light lamps” that are used specifically to help with SAD. These lamps are very bright at the required amount of 10,000 lux. For some, it has completely eliminated SAD!

Keep in mind that It won’t be long until the days start getting longer again. We start winter solstice on December 21 and go back to daylight savings time in March 2022.